Utopia 01

The rain had dulled to a misting drizzle, the lull in the storm more than tolerable, but the native Utopian knew it wouldn't last too long. Sahara said as much, but the green mechs didn't seem to mind. The 'leader' of the three distracted her with a few questions, announcing that they were new to the area, and not seeing any reason not to, Sahara trustingly answered all that she could. Mostly, she explained that they all were in one of the main fruit orchards outside of the agricultural capital: Neotopia.

Sahara had to do a double take as she realized that there were now five green mechs where a moment ago there had been three. She trailed off topic in confusion, counting again, "Where did they...?"

"Oh don't stop now little missy," said a newer, deeper male's tone, which had a growling, gravely edge to it that was so /new/ to her that Sahara jumped away. Spinning around and eyes widening in open awe at the mech that looked back down at the girl, she didn't hear the snickers from the Zakus. "We are all /very/ interested in what you're saying after all." He had a strange, rough accent that the human had never heard before, and despite herself Sahara was fascinated.

He was easily six feet, the average size of a mech, but his helm design with the raised sail-like crest and his sharp edges (spiky-ness), as well as the bulky armor made this mech look larger than he was. There was also a manner about the mech, how he held himself that just added to his stature. He was /in charge/ and knew it, as did all the Zakus around them.

Easily a dozen had arrived now... but where were they coming from?

Like the Zakus, this mech only had a single optic-like eye, a dark ruby color that matched the crimson red of his armor. He had undertones of grey and highlights of gold. The main spikes on his shoulder guards were also golden, yet the mech looked like it had been years since he gave any time to polish. Though metallic, the metal of his frame was scuffed and scratched with larger scars of both kinds (healed and forced wielding) haphazardly crossing this way and that. A visor rested over the top of his helm and the mech had a face guard that seemed to be half of an air scrubber, but it was all but integrated on his helm and face as well. That too looked like it hadn't been serviced in a while, let alone taken off.

It took a long moment for the mech, one Zapper Zaku, to realize he had just inadvertently put the Utopian native into an awestruck shock. Brown eyes wide and mouth open a little as she absorbed the sight of him. Sighing the mech reached out and snapped his fingers in front of the human's face, "Oy! I know I'm stunning for my age, but that's enough, little missy."

"...are you one of the... the /Founders?/" Sahara asked after blinking rapidly and slowly coming back to herself. From school and personal research, she knew that there were a few of the original Gundam mechs that founded Utopia still alive even today. Not many, but if ever there were a mech that was that old and still capable, this strange red mech had to be it as far as Sahara could tell.

"I'm a founder of something," Zapper snorted, smirking under his face guard before he walked around the girl, looking her over and taking note of the slender and lanky frame. If he had to guess, in another year or less this clearly youthful frame would be hitting that last awkward growth spurt before adulthood. In other words: the teenage years, filled with limbs growing faster than the body, hormones, much confusion, and rampant emotions. It was something of a nightmare for both human and mech parents alike when their offspring were in this state.

At the moment, this child was still just that: a child. It meant she was one of the greatest gifts in Zapper's line of 'work', it meant that this human was /trusting./ The evidence in this misplaced trust was shown in the lack of fear around the Zakus and himself, even if she was confused. Honestly though, Zakus could confuse anyone that wasn't a true Axian and thus used to insanity. Yet every now and then Zapper's own horde did some things that baffled him, so it was wise never to underestimate a Zaku or a group of them.

Back to the situation at hand, Zapper guessed he had a little time to manipulate this human and get some native knowledge of this new world. The Zaku commander had every intention of taking this advantage, his optic flickered over the girl again, noting the arm mounted computer and couldn't help a little bit of approval. One: it was a computer, and two: it was designed right, unlike that other world the Dark Axis had just come from.

"Now," Zapper wrapped an arm around Sahara, pulling her with him over to where two rounded stones were, flat on two sides to make a seat though they seemed to be out of place, "You should continue, little missy, about what you were saying about this area, and that city you mentioned."

"Neotopia?" Sahara asked, blinking as she took the indicated seat. She still had to crane her head back to look up at Zapper as he gracelessly flopped on the other seat. At hearing a gasp the girl looked over in bemused confusion once more to note that there were now even more Zaku's than the five before. A rapid count came up with ten or eleven.

Where were they coming from?

Really!

The original three were looking between the two sitting, they were openly comparing sizes between their commander and the human. The axe wielding one popped out of the crowd, bounding over beside Sahara. "Here!" he announced, and before the girl could react and before Zapper could reach over to smack the Zaku away, the green mech picked Sahara up, making her squeak in surprise, and sat down. Sahara was now in the Zaku's lap and just a little bit closer to Zapper's optic level, "Zaku!"

Zapper facepalmed, growling to himself in exasperation, not ten minutes before his whole horde had just had a unified freak out of all the organic material and matter from grass to trees. And here was one of those same Zakus humming in pride of a random idea to help the human, or maybe him. "Scrap for brains," He muttered before letting it go too slid away with practiced ease and switched back to the original topic. "Yes, that place. How big is it and what's the layout?"

Frowning now, Sahara still answered, "Well... it's one of the capitals on Utopia so... really big?" She offered, paused and then after looking up at the optic of the Zaku she was sitting on, Sahara raised her personal computer, flipped open the cover and activated the hologram display. The girl typed in a command to link up with the navigation network, and then brought up the basic layout of the city she had lived beside all her life.

"Neotopia, the inner city is approximately twelve square miles with the agricultural towers reaching over a thousand feet in height," Sahara read aloud and made a thoughtful sound, she hadn't realized her home was just barely in the city limits.

"Population?" Zapper asked leaning forward a bit and committing the holographic images to memory. He was aware that his Zakus were also crowding each other to get in closer for their own look. The one under Sahara peered over her shoulder as he loosely wrapped his arms around her unnoticed.

"Residence?"

The girl shrugged and pointed to the information on the bottom, "608,660 residents more or less, But there are always people coming and going day and night."

"How many are mech in that number?"

Sahara gave Zapper a funny look, "I don't know, at least half are mecha civilians. There's a whole other counting system for advanced drones and base AI aren't include. Neotopia is one of the ten main cities that's best in both technological and agricultural education paths."

The red mech hummed, "Fascinating... what are you learning?" Zapper added as an off chance thought as adults tended to have, though in reality he was fallowing a feeling in his gut.

The girl gave him a look that was both sheepish and proud at the same time, "Umm… a lot of things..."

"Like...zaku?" One of the horde pressed, picking up or just guessing what his commander wanted to know.

"Well, I'm studding mecha and mechanical engineering," Sahara blurted out with a blush, looking down to fiddle with her computer and finally noticing the arms around her middle.

Zapper arched up an optic ridge at that, looking the human over, "Isn't that a bit advanced for someone your age?" She couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen he'd guess.

Sahara was a bit more sheepish, "Normally for my age group, yes... I'm a bit ahead."

"All the better!" Zapper rumbled now as he realized the sudden value of this girl that his horde had found. "Commander Sazabi will be pleased at this first intake." He smiled under his face guard in an almost parental amusement at the cheer from the horde.

"Intake?" Sahara asked, "What do you mean? And there's no Gundam leader named Za-za-bi." She stumbled over the non-Utopian name that had been spoken with that new Axian accent.

"Sazabi! Zaku!" Once of the Zaku's corrected her.

"Za-sabe?"

"Sazabi, zaku."

"Za...zabe?"

"Sazabi-Zaku."

"Sa-?"

"That's enough!" Zapper cut in over the sincere attempt to get name right.

"And we're not Gundams, human, we're zakus! Zaku!" a horde member added, promptly fallowed by an enthusiast, "ZAKU!" from the others around.

"Idiot!" The red mech yelled, leaping to his feet and, moving faster than his heavy armor suggested he could, was by the Zaku that just spoke. Zapper pulled his own axe off his back and used the flat of the blade to hit the Zaku in the back of the head hard enough that the smaller green mech face planted into ground.

But the damage was doubly done.

Sahara's forming question along the lines of 'what do you mean' to what Zaku were promptly dissolved into uncomprehending shock at Zapper's actions. It didn't matter that the Zaku was rising from a blow that should have severely dented his helm in, but that the red mech would even /think/ about striking another... That he did so without hesitation or thinking about it, that such an action looked like it was done so often that it was an ingrained reflex...

Something happened then, something that was inevitable in any Utopian thanks to their own peaceful world and culture. Without the 'fight' gear in the instinctual fight-or-flight human response a Utopian was, without any emergency training, would do as expected: Flee.

Sahara wasn't even aware of exactly when adrenaline surged into her system or how she'd slipped free of the Zaku she'd been sitting on. She wasn't aware for the next few minutes as her body took over to just /run./ Leaving behind her roller blades and the Zakus as the girl stretched out her legs for more speed. It seemed like Sahara could only dodge trees thanks to a childhood growing up by her family's orchard and playing countless days here with other kids her age.

Even so, that fact didn't change even when between one step and the next, one of Sahara's bare feet came down on a hard, sharp surface. Crying out at the totally unexpected pain, Sahara tried to pull her foot up but her right foot was already coming down on the sharpness as well. Two painful stumbles later and the girl crashed down, her partly grown frame landing heavily on what felt like the old-style of pavement... that crunched under her weight...?

Pulling herself up with a wince, Sahara looked down at the ground and her brow crumpled with renewed confusion. It took a few moments for her mind to catch up with what she was seeing, thoughts pushing past the adrenaline to the grass.

It couldn't be grass. Grass was green and smelled, it was soft to the touch, cushioned your fall, and helped keep the ground in place on the hills. It wasn't that grey color even when unhealthy, nor hard like finely-carved stone that crunched under hands and knees.

"What's going on?" Sahara asked Utopia in general as she looked up, only to freeze as she saw that the trees ahead were like the blade of grass. All impossibly petrified to stone, from the great nut-baring trees to those that made fruit and even former wild flowers were grey and lifeless at the roots.

Sahara shuffled back onto the real living grass, leaving behind scattered spots of red that was the only color in that patch of the orchard; she stood shakily after pulling out a few slivers of stone, cringing at the pain in her feet.

"This is imposable." The girl said, crouching back down to pick up a small flower that her fall had broken in half. It was bent a little, frozen in time while bending with a breeze and small enough that Sahara had to use her most delicate of holds so as not to shatter the thin petals. "What could do such a thing... and why?"

"Zaku!"

Sahara spun around, for the first time fear seeped into her, climbing up her spine and in between the cracks of adrenaline and mystification. Her mind rapidly jumped to the conclusion that the mechs she met were responsible. They had claimed not to be Gundams after all, Sahara didn't recognize their design and that act of violence was enough to scare even her unshakable mother. It wasn't hard for her to do so, and the Utopian promptly started to run again, sure she'd been spotted and wanted nothing but to be at the safety of home.

Another minute Sahara had her bearings in the orchard again and the girl turned right around the trunk of an apple tree. She slowed enough to get her feet under her and leapt for a lower branch of the next tree, scrambling a bit on the trunk before getting her sore feet into the nearly hidden entrance in the trunk. She slid the rest of the way into the hidey-hole and balled up with her pack over her head just in time.

Several sets of metal feet tromped by to the chant of, "Zaku, Zaku, Zaku!"

Sahara scrunched lower, trying to wiggle around to pull her left arm up from being trapped between her legs and body without lifting up too much. She wanted to call the M-2A, but found her fingers keying in a different code as if on their own accord instead.

-/This is Gundam Force dispatch, what is the prob.../- A mech's voice started to say, but cut off as he heard the tone of the girl's words.

"I need help..." Sahara whimpered, covering her computer before fumbling to lower the volume, "Please, there's these mechs that- that are green and have one optic and the orchard and grass is all stone and Zapper hit him and they're after me and I don't know why-!" Sahara gasped as her rushed to complete her disjointed run-on sentence.

-/It's going to be alright/,- The reassuringly smooth mech's voice said, tone lowering a bit, -/What's your name?/-

"Sahara," The girl said, swallowing and lifting up, first her backpack that was still on her head so she could then peek out of her hiding place.

-/Where are you Sahara?/- The mech asked even as he was tracking the signal of Sahara's personal computer.

"The Theta Orchard, my mother is the caretaker," Sahara started, only to yelp as a hand reached in to grab her backpack and hauled it and her out as she still had her arms through the straps.

"There you are," Zapper growled as he extracted the human from the hiding place, the main reason he had found her was because of the bright blue pack, "Stop squirming you little… eh?"

-/Sahara run and hide there's a Gundam near you to help!/- The mech on the line was yelling before a large black hand closed over the arm mounted computer. He twisted and yanked it away before tossing the hardware aside as the mech ignored the yelp his action earned.

"None of that," The Axian growled again, lifting the girl up by her pack. "Now you are coming with me to the Komusai and if you stay a good little girl the Commander might not petrify you like those trees back there." Zapper began reaching for Sahara, but was kept from doing so by an energy blast in front of his facemask. Reflexively, Zapper dropped the human and leapt back with a snarl of, "Scrap!"

Something as large as Zapper and hard with the living metal of a Gundam's armor slammed into the red mech's non-spiked right side. The thing, or rather this person, was moving with enough momentum and enough force to not only send Zapper crashing down and sliding a good ten feet away, but made the Zaku commander hit a tree hard enough to wedge his crest into the trunk.

"Do not be frightened," A new voice spoke as the blue and white frame of the newcomer turned to scoop up Sahara, cradling the girl in his arms the mech was already moving again to the sound of thrusters to get clear of the orchard. "I'm here to protect you," he continued once in the open field, proving that the girl hadn't been too far from the edge of the forest.

Sahara blinked up at a face that was both familiar and unknown to her at the same time. The general design of the mech's helm and clean facemask were reassuringly Utopian, and he had that two tone color of the eyes that was unmistakably those of a Gundam.

"Are you alright...?" The Gundam started, pausing as the girl in his arms promptly latched onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Giving a reassuring purr, the Gundam glanced at the edge of the orchard as he dialed up his scanners.

"Get back here with my prisoner!" Zapper's voice yelled from out of sight and within the trees, his tone making Sahara flinch. "Zakus! Call the Bagu-Bagu!"

"I shall take that as a 'maybe.'" The Gundam said picking up multiple unknown and non-Utopian signatures as well as a very strange mass reading coming from behind...? He turned to see the shifting form of what could be called a swarm, but the mech was too far to tell exactly what made up of.

And then the mech noticed the ground under the swarm as it hovered close and near, the green was slowly turning gray as the rain started again.

The Gundam reflexively held Sahara closer to him as he realized the swarm was responsible for the prettification of organic flora and fauna he had come across. The mech looked down at the girl he had, "Hold on," he warned before activating the thrusters on his back once more to put a safety space between the human and the threats of not only the swarm they would later learn was the Bagu-Bagu that Zapper had called for, as well as the Zaku's coming out of the forest.

"Why are they doing this?" Sahara asked even as she kept her face low against the warm armor of the Gundam.

"I do not know," The mech slowed and stopped, setting Sahara down on the grass and gently pushed on her back, "Stay here, stay low and do not be alarmed if you see me using a weapon." The gundam stood back up, stepping away before retrieving his firearm off his back.